Weekly Friday Favorites

woot woot!  It's my favorite day of the week again! Somehow fridays are always more productive for some reason. Maybe there's motivation to work harder knowing there's a day off coming? who knows, haha. 
here's some favorites of mine this week:

These handmade "coffee cozies"

photo credit

Besides keeping your hands protected from the scalding hot coffee to-go cups, it's re-usuable  (aka enviro- friendly) and personalized - so you can tell your drink apart from everyone else's ( helpful when you buy a round of coffees for all your friends or coworkers!) and TOTALLY ADORABLE ( who doesn't love puppies?)

I want one!

 

 

THIS perfume has been my favorite wear-it-every-day-'cause-it-smells-divine scent for years now

photo credit

I actually have almost run out of it (again) and so I'm trying desperately to limit myself to just wearing it occasionally until I can get more. In the meantime, I've just been wearing a good 'ol standby, vanilla oil from The Body Shop.

 

The three little words:

 

 

For some strange reason my kids don't like these words nearly as much as I do, hahaha!  But the school supplies shopping is a fun part, and we always have a back-to-school party with, you guessed it - CUPCAKES!

 

Speaking of school, that brings me to my next favorite,

This painting: by one of my favorite artist's, Elsie Larson of Red Velvet Art

 

Photo credit

I wish I could fill my entire house with her paintings. Love love love!

 

The kids and I are still mid-way through our painting project so that still has to be finished up this weekend. Tonight is our regular "Friday pizza and a movie" night (can hardly wait!) and hopefully tomorrow we can finish painting the walls and do some grocery shopping down across the line in "the Americas". School supply shopping might get postponed till Sunday, and I still have preparations for the baby shower next week. Oh, and at some point I have to reorganize the supply closet in my art studio, and a few home closets as well.

That concludes my to-do list for the weekend. What are your plans?

 

Weekends fuller than my unorganized closets, 

-J

 

 

 

Busy week = BIG UPDATE!

Get ready for a major overhaul - the photo below of my tools doesn't even begin to cover the extent of the "building" that this blog  (not to mention my whole career) is going to undergo! 

I'm amazed at how FAST the time has gone by -  I can barely keep up with all the new stuff going on these days.(in a good way)  The good news is I have LOTS to share with you all in the next few weeks!  I've been steadily moving in a new direction over the past few years, and I'm so excited to share all the new changes this direction is taking me, I could almost  burst!
 I'm beginning a new business adventure again, ( to read about my last one, click here ) this time for my own online art store!  My love of photography has led me in a new direction, one that is way less client-centered and more art-inspired. I WILL still be doing photography, but my store will be more than just photo prints, I am also going to be selling my own paintings ( I do acrylic, and oil ) as well as my other handmade unique items, made not only by me by also my featured artist friends who are wonderfully talented.  I hope each of these will add a bit of happiness and inspiration to the lives of those who receive them! A tiny seed for this was planted in my heart a couple years ago, and since then that seed has grown in a dream that had rooted itself so deeply in my heart that it is now a part of me, and I am so excited to see it grow and slowly become a reality!   I will share more details over the following days and weeks as I can. Lots of fine-tuning to be done and many business details to be worked out, (I'm well-aware of the crazy time-consuming hours of hard work from when I started my first business with my friend Kendall)  but now that it's FINALLY happening I couldn't be more excited  - I'm ready to move forward!

I haven't had this much inspiration pumping creativity through my veins in YEARS!  I carry around THIS with me everywhere these days:

so that I can be sure not to lose any of the dozens of ideas floating around in my head at any given time, haha. It's already filling up with pages of ideas, notes, sketches, quotes and random inspirations that I don't want to let slip by. Oh, and my new favorite addiction these days is chai frappuccino's  - I'm going through them as quickly as I'm going through my art journal! haha

I spent last month cleaning out my mudroom to make way for my in-home art studio, so that I could have everything in one place, and I can make a big creative mess to my heart's content and not have to worry about cleaning it up when someone comes over, I can just close the door! haha ;)
Still have alot to do ( painting the walls, decorating, put up shelving, hanging canvas etc) but it's a start:

I already have a few things made and ready to hang, I'm super excited to post photos of them soon!
Once I get the online store ready, and I'm ready to list, I'll be sure to post photos of the finished studio and all the art projects as I finish them, including some fun DIY posts of stuff I've made to customize my studio! (custom fabric chandelier, anyone?)

In other news, I fell in love this week . ..  with these camera bags from epiphanie bags!

Saving up to get one, so I can haul my poor camera around with me EVERYWHERE while keeping it from gettting battered ( it still hasn't entirely forgiven me for dragging it around Mexico, haha)
you can see more here

I'll leave you with some random shots of pretties for your eyeballs to enjoy ;)  Remember to always look for the rainbow after each storm . . .

And stop to smell the flowers!

Hope your day is full of beauty and inspiration!

I'm off to go kick some butt in my taekowndo class ( www.outlasttkd.com)  and then home to continue customizing my new studio!  -J